The Thief of an Identity; A Reflection on "We Were Children"

          Before viewing the documentary "We Were Children", I knew very little about residential schools. After watching it, I have come to realize that these so called "homes" were only places where Indigenous children were stripped from their once known identity.

          Throughout the film I was constantly in utter shock and disbelief as to why the nuns and priests thought that forcing the children to speak English or depriving them of their own clothing was right. It was completely disheartening to see the children's culture slip away in a place remotely far from their familiar homes. For instance, the first thing the nuns did to Lyna when she got to the school was aggressively snip off her beautiful hair. This was part of her Indigenous and personal identity and cutting that off was removing a part of who she was. To emphasize this, the sound effect of slicing scissors was predominantly heard. Hearing only this made my heart drop as I felt sorry for the little girl whose torturous life was just beginning. Then, Glen was vigorously screamed at when he tried to speak his native language. Subtitles were used during this to show that he was just explaining that he did not understand, which only made my annoyance towards the ignorant nuns worse.

          All of this makes me loathe the schools as they did not even try to accommodate the children, rather they only cared about burying their culture. This piece was extremely difficult to watch as I believe that one's culture and identity is their own personal decision and that choice should not be stolen from anyone.

Residential School Indigenous child before and after